


Seeing The Bright

by Estirose



Category: Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-04
Updated: 2013-05-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 10:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/784938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At camp, Hilda gets ready to retake Fynn. But there's a little time before that to rest, talk to her friends, and decide what to make of Leila.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeing The Bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seventhe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhe/gifts).



> Using the following prompt: 
> 
> SO, I love Leila. What I would really like is a closer look at Leila when she joins the resistance and starts working closely with Hilda: how does she earn Hilda's trust? Remember Hilda made Firion et al go through some quests to prove their strength and loyalty - did Hilda do the same for Leila, or was the word of Firion and friends enough? Both possibilities are interesting to me!
> 
> What I'd like to see is a bond of trust and friendship growing between the two ladies. If you'd like to make it a ship, I am ALL ABOUT THAT; if not, I seriously have a thing for powerful lady friendships so that is not at all a problem. How do Hilda and Leila connect? LET'S SEE IT PLEASE. :D
> 
> \---------------  
> This is more Final Fantasy II than Final Fantasy III, but Arc insisted on showing up.

There was so much to do after Hilda had found herself rescued from the Emperor, thanks to the efforts of Firion, Maria, and Guy. The small adventuring party, along with Gordon, had managed to get her out of the Emperor's dungeon, and she knew she owed them much. That being said, she had her doubts about the woman that Firion and Gordon had left in charge of her army. Leila was a pirate, and even if she seemed to run a tight ship, Hilda had her doubts about leaving a pirate in charge of an entire rebel army, as ragtag as it was.

Shaking her head, she turned towards the young scholar that was waiting patiently for her orders. His name was Arc; he'd fallen through a rift, apparently, a story that her mages had assured her was true. She'd found him useful; he was calm and level-headed, and while she missed Minwu terribly, he made a good advisor and white mage. Arc seemed terribly embarrassed by that, muttering that he didn't have much power, though one of the other mages thought that he was very powerful, just that it was sealed somehow along with his memories.

"I'm sorry," she told him. "Here, give this to Robert." Robert was Leila's second, and he was commanding one of the divisions taking back Fynn.

Arc bowed, heading out to pass along the instructions. Hilda nodded after him, and then returned to her planning as Gordon walked into the tent. He was less of a coward, but she was the better planner. He was better at the actual fighting.

"How go the plans?" he asked.

"I think, if we get Firion and the others to take the castle, we're well set to take the rest of the city." She looked down at the schematic of Fynn. Her army wasn't strong, but the guards in the town were weaker than anything in the castle.

"Leila seems to have done a good job with our army," Gordon said. "She can be tough, but that's what the troops needed."

Hilda sighed. "I know that she's worked with Firion, and he says that she's trustworthy, but..."

"Firion started out as an inexperienced city boy," Gordon pointed out. "I started out as a coward."

And he wasn't one now, she knew. He'd grown. Had Leila, too, become a better person because of what she'd seen and done? Had Firion made her a better person?

Taking a chance on Firion was paying off in some odd but useful ways.

"You were both honest people," she said. "Leila used to make her living taking over ships. The rest of us just want to stop the Emperor."

"There aren't going to be any ships to plunder if the Emperor wins," Gordon pointed out reasonably. "Besides, Paul's a thief, and he's a good ally."

Hilda sighed. "I know." So many of her people were refugees. They'd come together because there was safety in numbers. They didn't come because they wanted to be heroes, they came because if they didn't, the world might end. It was truly a ragtag group of non-fighters.

She could hear one of Leila's people shouting, the maritime cadence in his voice all too clear as he yelled at his group of recruits. She didn't like having to have people fight like this, but she had no choice.

Gordon put a hand on her shoulder. "You can trust her, Hilda." And with that, he left, trying to take care of the day-to-day needs of the people while she planned the assault.

Arc came back in after a while while she was staring at the map. "Gordon said to give this to you," he said, and she recognized a good, hearty camp stew. She took it eagerly.

"Did you eat?" she asked her aide.

He nodded, and sighed. "I'm fine, princess."

There was something in his demeanor that said that it wasn't true. "Come, sit with me while I eat." She'd get him to eat later.

He nodded, and she placed her bowl down. She noticed how he watched the walls as she ate, as if he was expecting an attack any moment. He seemed to be a trained fighter, and he'd insisted on participating in the assault. He wasn't as strong a mage as Minwu, but anybody who could heal would be of use in the fight.

"Tell me what's wrong," she said, after eating some of her meal. She missed having Minwu to talk to. They'd talked often, before he'd gone off.

"I miss my home," he said, with a small smile. "What I remember, anyway. I do remember this boy, though. Alus, a King."

"How did you become friends?" she asked. A friendship between a commoner and a king was unusual in most circumstances, though Arc seemed to have a wisdom beyond his teenage years.

"I.. my friends and I saved him from an assassin, I think," he said. "And we're somewhere about the same age, so we started writing letters. I think he asked me to come and be an adviser when I finished what I was doing. I can't remember much beyond that."

He had earned the King's trust in the same way that Firion and the others had earned hers. He had fought for the King, in a way. Obviously, he had become trusted, and then they had become friends.

"You make a fine adviser, Arc." She wondered if he felt for the king more than simple friendship. She sensed that Minwu was in love with her, a little. Or maybe she loved him, in a way that she couldn't express. "You'll be a good one for him, as well."

Assuming he survived, and one of her mages could find a way to send him home, hopefully with his memories intact. Or maybe the Emperor's death would re-open the rift to where he came from. Either way, she'd miss him.

She wondered if he'd be as great a hero as Firion, Maria, and Guy if she sent him out with them. But no, she couldn't ask him to die for her people and her world, not when he had his own. He was a teenager, only fifteen, and she swore that she'd keep him safe, or at least as safe as she could.

Hilda could see him blushing, and she smiled. "You want to become more."

"I…" He trailed off, looking at the walls. "Yes- but no. He's a king. And too young." Shaking his head, he got up. "There's so much to do."

"Sit down, Arc," she said gently. "I'm not going to judge you." His world was not her own; his ways were not their ways. He seemed to be a fine, upstanding young man, and he had his life ahead of him. She had no doubt he would grow into being a powerful scholar and healer, once they got him back to his world and the ancient ruins he'd been studying before he fell through to theirs.

The side of her tent rustled. "Ah, there ye are," Leila said. "Gordon said I'd find ye here."

"I'll go now, unless my lady needs me?" Arc sketched out a little bow. 

She wondered if she should ask him to stay. But no. She wasn't afraid. No matter what happened, she couldn't be afraid, for Arc's sake, and for everybody else's.

"Go ahead, Arc, I'm sure you have things to do," she said graciously. She could fight if she had to. She doubted she needed to, though. Leila had been one of Firion's picks, and she had to trust Firion.

She trusted Paul, after all. 

Arc bowed and headed out. She turned towards the pirate - no, the head of her armies, scarily enough - and folded her hands. "Report."

"Our troops are ready," Leila said, as a proper commander would, never mind the accent of the sea that she carried. "Robert and William have their orders." The woman gazed at Hilda steadily. Without fear. But then again, she had no reason not to. Leila was a proud pirate, and Hilda would respect that. 

Hilda nodded. "You've done a good job with my army." As soon as the words escaped her lips, she knew that it was true. Leila knew what she was doing. Hilda should trust her, and only prejudice against pirates was stopping her.

"Of course, yer highness. I run a tight ship, even on land." Leila stood up proud, and she was reminded of Firion and the others when they came back from Fynn. Maybe Leila wasn't so different after all, not from anybody else. She was as willing to fight for their world just as any landbound inhabitant.

"It must be a bit different," Hilda said graciously. 

"Aye, on a ship, ye cannot put a disobedient sailor to port, mosttimes." Leila stared at the walls, as if remembering something. "But ye have a good army, Hilda, and ye are to be commended for that. 'Tis a good thing that yer people are willing to fight for ye. It's not always that way on the seas. On the seas, ye have to be tough on people who step out of line, 'cause they're not always there because they wanted to be. But here… here we're all fighting to save ourselves. And the people like ye, of course."

"You're all taking a large risk, following me like this." Even if Leila was a pirate, she was still someone Hilda felt she had to protect.

Her companion laughed, a loud, rowdy laugh that surprised Hilda, even as she'd heard it before. "I thought Firion was a fool for trustin' pirates. Told him I didn't think much of the space between his ears if he chose to trust us. But there's something about what you're doin', what Firion and the others are doin', that needs to be done. 'Sides, the man's persuasive." Leila winked at her. "Don't think Maria likes me much, but yer not required to like someone to fight with 'em."

And Hilda had to admit that it was true. She wasn't sure what to make of Leila, but liking her personally wasn't required if their actions helped save the world.

"I would like yer permission to join Firion and the others when they go to take Castle Fynn." 

She had worked well with Firion, from what Gordon had said. But then again, Firion was easy to get along with, they all were. And if Leila hadn't killed Firion by now, Hilda doubted that she was going to do so in Fynn. "Permission granted. I'm actually relieved to give Firion some help." Even Firion and the others needed help once in a while.

"Thanks." Leila grinned. 

"As soon as Firion and the others get back and can rest a little, we'll go." She was stating the obvious, but Leila was her military commander, and a good one she was.

"Aye, princess." And with a salute, she was walking out of the tent, talking with someone outside about unbinding someone's powers, and clearing up somebody else's orders, and all the things that Hilda trusted her commander to do.

Because, even as she was unsure what to make of Leila, she was one of Hilda's people, and Hilda would trust her.

**Author's Note:**

> Arc technically comes from the end of the game, but he doesn't remember that, nor does he remember he's a 68th level Sage.


End file.
